Cyclones sweep first regatta of the season

Competing in a dual meet against Chapman University, the Cyclone crew team swept the scoreboard, taking the whole meet.

On March 7, Mills College raced their opponent in four races, winning them all.

The top eight athletes on the team raced in the Varsity women’s eight, while the nine-through-16 ranked athletes raced on the second Varsity women’s eight.

The Cyclones also raced with the top four athletes in the Varsity women’s four. A second Varsity women’s four made up of first-year rowers competed in the last race.

“The fact that Mills swept all of the events is a great way to kick off the season. To my knowledge, this is the first sweep in many years,” head Crew Coach Carrie Davis said. “It was a nice experience for the team to sweep in all four boats. The athletes did a good job.”

Chapman University had just 10 athletes competing on their team. According to Davis, Chapman’s athletes had to double, triple and quadruple up for their races.

“Racing multiple races back to back is hard to do. I commend Chapman for their sportsmanship,” Davis said. “It was great they were willing to push through it.”

The day before the race, the weather was cold, rainy and windy leaving the crew teams anticipating a less than ideal day for racing. But Mother Nature decided to calm down, allowing the crew teams to race “on water that settled to glass,” according to Davis.

Rowing a distance of 2000 meters is unique as Davis said, because it is approximately “the longest sprint a body can sustain.” On average, this distance takes a crew seven to eight minutes to complete.